Williams-Sonoma Complete Seasonal Cookbook [Hardcover]

Chuck Williams (Editor), Penina (Photographer)

Book Description

Series: Williams-Sonoma Seasonal Celebration | Publication Date: April 1, 2002

Celebrate every season of the year by cooking delicious, easy-to-make recipes inspired by nature's bounty. This tantalizing volume includes over 200 recipes featuring fresh seasonal ingredients-originally created by award-winning chef, author, cooking teacher and television celebrity Joanne Weir for the four-volume Williams-Sonoma Seasonal Celebration Series-gathered here for the first time in one complete and comprehensive volume. Each recipe is accompanied by a full-color photograph that shows exactly how the finished dish should look. Throughout the recipe pages, which are organized season by season, you will also discover a wealth of helpful hints and tips geared to preparing seasonal ingredients.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Weldon Owen (April 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892374412
• ISBN-13: 978-1892374417
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 10.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,814,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost perfect, but definitely worth buying, October 30, 2003

By 

ANT "azraelart" (Crofton, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Williams-Sonoma Complete Seasonal Cookbook (Hardcover)

Yes, almost perfect. I do have one complaint which I will get to in a second. First things first, the recipes are to die for. Williams-Sonoma has captured the seasons splendidly with this hardcover book, providing multiple recipes for all four seasons. What is wonderful is the breakup in the book of the various courses. Each season starts with starters (naturally), moves on to soups and salads, then entrees, next vegetable and side dishes, and finally to desserts. It's a great way to organize your own Fall, Spring, Winter, or Summer dinner party.

The recipes are well-written with easy to understand directions and measurements. The recipes are for the most part easy to make, with only a few of them requiring much expertise. This is a great book for beginners as well as pros.

The pictures are colorful and inviting and accurately display the recipes with visual suggestions for serving the dish. My one complaint (as promised), though, is that not every recipe has a picture and there is only one photo per recipe. Perhaps I'm too used to multiple staging photos for recipes, but I found that it's always helpful to have at least one shot of the finished product per dish. If that's not a bother for you, then you're in good hands. I might be pickier than others.

Overall, a tremendous buy, truly worth adding to your culinary library. Again, very close in my mind to 5 stars, but just not quite there yet.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Obscure Ingredients but Wonderful Dishes, February 20, 2004

By 

Flame_926 "flame_926" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Williams-Sonoma Complete Seasonal Cookbook (Hardcover)

I probably would not recommend this book for a beginning cook unless they wanted to decorate with it. However, for the advanced cook I think that this would be a very nice gift. You can count on William's Sonoma to not only create a beautiful meal but also one to make one that is delightful to the taste.

Recently I have been expanding my knowledge of cooking fowl and the book had an excellent recipe for Cornish Game Hens that would please anyone at a nice dinner party. Although the book is broken into seasons and many of the dishes are definitely more for a hearty winter than a hot summer, you do not necessarily need to be limited to cooking the recipes at those seasons. I would caution the cook to have a good grocery resource however as some of their ingredients are a bit difficult to find; hence the four and not five stars.